So, Is The Pandemic Over Now?

I looked back to my WAF blog postings from a couple years ago, at the start of the pandemic and lockdown.  I now cringe at some of the things I heard and relayed back then -- stuff like thinking this was going to last just two weeks, or thinking that masks don't work (that one was real stupid).  That latter one still holds the record for largest and swiftest idea that was first ridiculed and then proven correct.  How stupid was I to think that I could take off my mask while I was sitting down with people all around me???

Anyway, a few weeks after my inner turmoil over masks, the company mandated that all co-workers wear a mask while on-campus ... and, according to my blog posts then, they decided a couple days later that only surgical masks can be worn at work.  Again, such whiplash-inducing changes reflected the fear of the unknown that was the pandemic at the time.  Yeah, every one of us was flying blind then; for a while there, I thought it best to take paid time off and not show up for work for the next couple weeks.  But we all adapted and wore masks, and while co-workers I knew got the 'Rona -- I overheard one co-worker while we were cutting packages open on Tuesday say she was on a respirator for a bit, and at one point in mid-January there were eight e-mails announcing people who got pinched with COVID-19 -- there was, at least I don't think, a massive outbreak of the virus at work.

Speaking of cutting packages on Tuesday ... a wave of chatter went through the lab.  I saw some tech with her mask off.  She shouted to us that the company's mask mandate was over, and everyone was, uh, free!  And then a supervisor for the lab said the same thing.  And then an hour later she came over and said everyone had to wear masks again.

And then yesterday/Wednesday, while I was typing, there was an e-mail announcing, like they did the day before (since I was cutting packages I didn't see Tuesday's e-mails), that they were going to end the mask mandate at work.  After some consultation and another e-mail that may have been sent to some other people but not me, we all agreed that this mandate was going to drop the next day ... meaning today, meaning when I go into work.  The mandate that we need to get our temperature taken also has been dropped, meaning that we are not required to go through the only entrance that has these temp-taking kiosks anymore.

Yet, the announcement on high states that if someone wants to still wear masks at work, they can.  And as someone who initially thought that I could rip of my mask as soon as I got a vaccine ... I will still be wearing them.  At least for the next couple weeks.  Frankly, I think dropping this is too soon.  I'm thinking there will be a wave of people getting at least the flu at work in the next couple weeks, and I want no part of that.

Still, this will be yet another adjustment, another change that, like seeing the sun in the morning, I won't like at least at first.  But it's going to be weird seeing everybody (and I'm sure it's going to be, like, 90% of the employees) not wear masks.  And since work is the most important place I go to every day, not wearing a mask there will probably lead me to not wearing a mask, well, anywhere else.  That will probably happen; if we're going to get past this pandemic, that will have to happen.  But if this mandate-dropping is a mistake, well, that will mean I am going to be susceptible to not heeding the cautious side of myself because of, for lack of a better term, peer pressure.  The company, like it or not, is saying that the pandemic is over.  I don't want to be Chicken Little, but I don't think it is.  And once again, I wonder if I will be one of the few at work who believes it ... and I wonder if I will be one of the few at work who is right ... and I also wonder if I am going to just give in just because it's easy.

Wish me luck.